An-My Lê was born in Saigon, Vietnam and came to the United States as a political refugee in 1975. She received her BAS and MS in biology from Stanford University and her MFA from Yale University. Her photographs and films focus on the impact and consequences of war, and she uses both black and white and color film. Lê’s series 29 Palms captured American troops training in the Mojave Desert prior to deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq and blurs the line between fact and fiction and journalism and art photography, as did her earlier work with Vietnam War re-enactors in Virginia and North Carolina.

Lê’s works are held in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.